For those who’re after a high-performance gaming and productiveness PC that retains fan noise to a minimal, MSI’s Infinite RS thirteenth must be in your shortlist – offered you have got a lot of room and lots of money (or at the very least credit score). With a Core i9-13900KF and an RTX 4090, each liquid-cooled, it delivers top-end efficiency whereas sustaining a surprisingly silent fan sound profile, with the assistance of two radiators and 9 followers.
The system’s MSI Prospect 700RL case can also be of upper high quality than you’ll discover on most prebuilts, together with a few of the finest gaming PCs, with a lot of room for including further elements. Simply know that with nice and quiet efficiency comes nice dedication to desk or ground house. The case is over 21 inches tall and practically two toes entrance to again. And the swing-out doorways are cumbersome, with practically zero clearance from the bottom. That makes this technique decidedly inconvenient for putting on carpeted flooring – you higher have an enormous desk.
MSI Infinite RS thirteenth Specs
| Processor | Intel Core i9-13900KF |
| Motherboard | MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI |
| Reminiscence | 32GB DDR5-5200 (2 x 16GB) |
| Graphics | MSI RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X (24GB GDDR6X, 2,525 MHz increase clock) |
| Storage | 2TB MSI Spatium PCIe 4.0 SSD |
| Networking | Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 |
| Entrance Ports | 3.5 mm headphone and mic jacks, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Sort-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Sort-C |
| Rear Ports | Rear audio, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-C , 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-A, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Sort-A, 2x USB 2.0 Sort-A, Intel 2.5 Gb Ethernet, PS/2 port |
| Energy Provide | MSI MPG A100W |
| Cooling | CryoTech Liquid Cooling with 240 mm radiator, 5 120 mm followers complete. |
| Working System | Home windows 11 Professional |
| Dimensions | 23.03 x 10.12 x 21.14 inches (585 x 257 x 537 mm) |
| Worth as Configured | $4,599 |
Design of the MSI Infinite RS thirteenth
The “Infinite” on this MSI desktop’s title is seemingly a nod to the quantity of house it’s going to take up in your life. At 21.14 x 10.12 x 23.03 inches (HWD), the Infinite RS thirteenth isn’t the largest desktop I’ve examined. However I’m fairly certain it’s the largest I’ve handled because the days of SLI and CrossfireX when two-, three- and even four-GPU techniques just like the Digital Storm Aventum have been much more frequent.
And the scale of this case don’t inform half the story concerning the house you should work with this technique. Each aspect panels (one is glass, the opposite metal) are hinged on the again, and the brushed metallic items that wrap across the entrance of the case are connected to the aspect panels.
Picture 1 of 2
This makes the aspect panels roughly 23 inches lengthy, so if you wish to open each all the way in which, you want a big portion of a medium-sized room to accommodate its sizable wingspan.
To be truthful, you can too carry the aspect panels off their hinges. However to do this you first need to open the doorways a number of inches. This can be an issue on any form of carpet (or perhaps a desk with cables or gentle muddle), as a result of the underside the doorways have little or no clearance from the bottom/desk. Additionally, as a result of the metallic parts wrap across the entrance, the panels (one in all which is usually glass) aren’t flat (due to these curved metallic bits on the entrance), so good luck discovering a spot to place them the place nobody goes to stumble into them or knock them over whilst you’re working contained in the PC.
Measurement apart, the case the Infinite RS thirteenth ships in (which is clearly some iteration of the Prospect 700RL, simply not the one with the touchscreen) is certainly a lower above the typical prebuilt chassis. It appears to be practically all metallic (principally metal) and glass, and it feels extraordinarily strong. There’s additionally a lot of air flow on the entrance, the highest, and even on the suitable aspect panel. Whereas the triangle design of the air flow makes for some pretty large holes within the case, the entire consumption sections have detachable mud filters behind them.
MSI additionally does a wonderful job of cable routing, maintaining muddle to a minimal even on the again panel. In all, this is without doubt one of the nicer PC circumstances I’ve seen shipped with a prebuilt, and positively has extra growth choices (which we’ll contact on additional later within the evaluation) than the Alienware Aurora R15. That mentioned, as somebody who lives in a small condominium, I might a lot favor the extra compact footprint of the Alienware, or any extra compact chassis, actually.
MSI additionally tosses in an RGB keyboard and mouse. The Clutch GM08 ships with our evaluation system and feels respectable, if a bit heavy by fashionable requirements. However whereas the Vigor GK30 keyboard that MSI additionally consists of appears good, with its six-zone RGB lighting, it’s a membrane (or as MSI claims, “mecha-membrane”) keyboard that simply doesn’t really feel as pleasing as even a funds mechanical keyboard.
Nonetheless, whereas the included peripherals right here aren’t precisely nice, they appear and feel rather a lot nicer than something I’ve seen shipped with a gaming desktop in years. And shopping for them individually would value you about $60 complete, so there’s a respectable quantity of worth right here. I principally simply want MSI had included a real mechanical keyboard together with the mouse. However then most gaming PC sellers both don’t embrace peripherals in any respect, or toss in a pair that each appear and feel like they got here from a greenback retailer.
Ports and Upgradability on the MSI Infinite RS thirteenth
Making use of all of the house on the high entrance of the case, the Infinite RS thirteenth homes, from left to proper, spun-metal energy and reset buttons, a USB-C port, separate mic and headphone jacks, and one other metallic button for biking by means of lightning presets on the system’s 4 RGB followers and the liquid cooler.
Word that there’s an angled piece of black glass between the case entrance and high. That is the place an LCD display screen is housed on some variations of this case, simply not on the fashions that MSI ships filled with elements. It nonetheless appears good with out the display screen. Simply know that it attracts fingerprints which are laborious to wipe off. If something, this makes me glad the touchscreen isn’t included on this technique.
All the things glows and adjustments in sync through the button on the highest of the case, save for the GPU.
The graphics card does have RGB on the backplate and the aspect, lighting up the Suprim branding. However it’s important to use MSI Heart (previously Dragon Heart) software program to regulate the lighting on the GPU. You may, after all, additionally use that software program to alter the lighting of the opposite elements, together with extra results than you will get from the button.
Round again, the MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI motherboard affords up three USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Sort-A ports, a 20 Gbps USB-C port, and 4 extra USB-A ports (two 2.0 and two 3.1 Gen 1). Community functionality is dealt with by each Wi-Fi 6E and quick (although nonetheless not quite common) 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet. You’ll probably need to improve your router to take full benefit of both the wi-fi or wired velocity right here. If you’re after solutions on that entrance, take a look at the finest gaming routers we’ve examined.
The GPU ports on the board are blocked off by a sticker telling novice customers to make use of the graphics card ports for gaming. And you should, because the KS CPU lacks built-in graphics. On the RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X graphics card, you get three DisplayPort 1.4a ports and an HDMI 2.1 port.
When it comes to inside growth, issues aren’t fairly infinite, however you have got much more choices with this technique than most. There are three spare M.2 slots on the motherboard (4 complete) and 6 unoccupied SATA connectors. And the case has room for as much as 4 2.5-inch drives, or two 2.5-inch drives and two 3.5-inch drives.
There are additionally two empty RAM slots, do you have to need to add greater than the present 32GB as soon as DDR5 costs fall. And the ATX board has three spare growth slots (one x1 and three x16). Simply word that the x16 slots differ in PCIe generations/velocity and obtainable lanes. So make sure you test the specifics on MSI’s Professional Z790-A WIFI web page should you’re going so as to add growth playing cards.
Gaming and Graphics Efficiency on the MSI Infinite RS thirteenth
Our evaluation unit of the MSI Infinite RS13 shipped with a top-end CPU within the type of Intel’s Core i9-13900K and a top-end GPU in Nvidia’s RTX 4090. In an fascinating transfer, each elements are liquid-cooled. The CPU is chilled by a 360 mm MSI AIO mounted on the high of the case, whereas the GPU is MSI’s RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X, with its 240 mm radiator mounted on the entrance. MSI even made the additional step of including a pair of 120 mm followers behind the GPU radiator, on high of the trio of RGB followers in entrance of the radiator for a push/pull setup that no-doubt helps the warmed air transfer from the entrance to the again of the case.
The CPU and GPU are the identical silicon as we not too long ago examined in Alienware’s Aurora R15, so we anticipate gaming efficiency to be comparable between these two machines. It will likely be fascinating, although, to see how a lot of a bonus comes from MSI’s superior cooling. The Alienware system has only a 240 mm AIO on its CPU whereas its GPU is air cooled.
For some gen-on-gen comparability, we tossed in HP’s Omen 45L from early 2022, which we examined with a liquid-cooled Core i9-12900K and an RTX 3090.
The very first thing I observed when gaming on the MSI Infinite RS thirteenth is simply how quiet it’s. Between the case’s sheer measurement, the radiators chilling each the CPU and graphics card and the 9 included followers, that is nearly actually the quietest high-end gaming rig I’ve examined in years. After I put my ear as much as the entrance of the case whereas operating some 3DMark assessments, essentially the most audible sound was from the pump built-in into the CPU radiator. And I nonetheless needed to get my ear 3-4 inches from the highest of the case to listen to it.
As I performed Doom Everlasting at 4K decision with ray tracing enabled (DLSS disabled), the sport ran between 184 and 256 frames per second, spending more often than not nicely above 200. Efficiency was buttery {smooth} as I used to be getting hammered by demons (and doing a good quantity of hammering again). As soon as once more, the followers remained so quiet I forgot the system was operating subsequent to me.
That’s positively not the case with most high-end desktops, together with the equally outfitted Alienware R15 we examined not too long ago (and even that had made huge enhancements in acoustics). For those who crave a quiet however extraordinarily highly effective system, MSI delivers on that entrance higher than I’ve skilled in years.
On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (highest settings), the MSI and Alienware techniques ran principally lifeless even, which you’ll see rather a lot in our different take a look at outcomes. Technically the MSI was one body behind the Alienware at 1080p, however whenever you’re pushing over 250 frames per second (fps), that’s nicely inside normal run-to-run variance. Word the once-mighty Omen 45L, with its last-gen flagship elements, is left within the mud right here, delivering lower than half the efficiency of the newer machines at 4K.
Issues regarded a bit completely different within the older, extra notoriously CPU-bound Grand Theft Auto V (very excessive settings). On this take a look at, the MSI and Alienware techniques have been once more even, at 186 fps at 1080p and 82 fps at 4K. However final 12 months’s HP nonetheless hung in there, delivering simply 10 fewer fps at 1080p and a still-smooth 65 fps at 4K.
Shifting to our Far Cry 6 take a look at (extremely settings), we noticed the MSI notch its first clear win, operating this recreation about 30 fps sooner than the Alienware at 1080p and 4K. That mentioned, we suspect there was some efficiency hiccup with the Alienware on this take a look at, since its rating was nicely behind even the older Omen at 1080p.
The MSI Infinite RS thirteenth bought edged out by the Alienware Aurora R15 on Borderlands 3‘s “badass” preset at 1080p, however solely by 5 fps. At 4K the MSI machine pulled a body forward of its otherworldly rival. And the Omen right here appears about its worst, delivering roughly half the efficiency of the newer techniques at each resolutions. What a distinction a 12 months and a few new silicon makes.
To emphasize-test techniques, we additionally run Metro Exodus on the RTX preset at 1080p 15 occasions in a loop, which usually lasts about half an hour. The MSI system churned by means of the take a look at with relative ease, averaging 115.43 fps, getting as excessive as 116.5 fps and on the second-to-last run, dipping as soon as to 113.4 fps.
Throughout our take a look at, the CPU’s efficiency cores averaged 5.49 GHz, and the effectivity cores have been extra environment friendly (however nonetheless quick), clocking in at 4.27 GHz. The CPU bundle averaged 67.93 levels Celsius, whereas the GPU ran at 2,647 MHz and averaged 48.78 C.
Productiveness Efficiency on the MSI Infinite RS thirteenth
The additional cooling on the CPU and GPU didn’t give MSI the definitive edge over the Alienware system in most of our gaming assessments, but when the 360 mm Radiator MSI opted for (over the 240 mm on the Alienware) goes to ship a big efficiency increase anyplace, it’s going to to be in productiveness assessments.
On Geekbench 5, the MSI system did handle to steer our pack, however solely by a single level (2,177 for MSI vs 2,176 for the Alienware) on the single-core take a look at, whereas doing about 4% higher than the Aurora R15 on the multi-core take a look at (23,752 for MSI versus 22,813 for the Alienware). And certain a 4% enchancment isn’t nothing, however word that the MSI system can also be a lot bigger. Final 12 months’s Omen isn’t even shut, particularly on the multi-core take a look at, the place its rating of 15,924 is about 33% lower than what MSI delivered on the identical take a look at.
On our 25GB file storage take a look at, the MSI Infinite RS thirteenth (at 1,803 MBps) was the slowest of its opponents (in comparison with 2,102 MBps for the Alienware and a speedier 2,522 for the HP). However MSI’s drive remains to be pretty speedy, and its 2TB capability is arguably extra interesting than a bit of additional velocity. The Alienware we examined had a 1TB SSD and, oddly, a 1TB laborious drive. The Omen, although, achieved its lead by transport with two 2TB WD SSDs.
In our Handbrake take a look at, which transcodes a 4K video to 1080p, we lastly noticed a substantive productiveness win for the MSI Infinite RS thirteenth. It took simply 2 minutes and 45 seconds to complete our take a look at, whereas the Alienware (with the identical CPU however lesser cooling) took 2 minutes and 56 seconds. The Omen, with its last-gen CPU, took 3:39.
Whereas the 11-second distinction between the Alienware and MSI techniques right here won’t seem to be a lot, the disparity could be rather more noticeable when working with bigger, longer recordsdata. So should you typically end up utilizing your system to do CPU-related duties that take a number of minutes or hours, the improved CPU cooling on the MSI system will prevent a lot of time. And there’s no denying the MSI is quieter. However briefly, bursty duties or gaming, don’t anticipate any substantive efficiency benefit with the MSI system if it is outfitted with the identical main elements because the Alienware.
Software program and Guarantee
As is often the case with high-end gaming desktops, MSI doesn’t overwhelm its boot drive with a lot of third-party software program. There’s the standard Home windows 11 cruft, like hyperlinks to WhatsApp, Disney Plus, Prime Video, TikTok and extra. And oddly, once I clicked on the WhatsApp shortcut, it put in Adobe Categorical, with the WhatsApp icon disappearing from the Begin menu. I attempted to see if I might replicate this subject, however the remainder of the shortcuts I clicked on have been pointed to the right app targets. That is most likely a Home windows subject, not an MSI subject.
The primary further program on the MSI Infinite RS thirteenth is MSI Heart. This was known as Dragon Heart and was considerably extra aggressively designed and geared towards avid gamers. However MSI has skinned and tweaked the software program, seemingly with extra of an goal towards normal PC attraction.
There’s a lot packed into MSI Heart, as with competing packages like Asus’ Armoury Crate. You may monitor system speeds and temperatures from one tab, and get help and driver updates from one other. However the Options tab is simply jammed with issues. There’s Mystic Mild for controlling the lighting; Gaming Gear for tweaking your MSI peripherals (which acknowledged the MSI mouse on this technique however oddly not the keyboard); Gaming mode, which helps you to customise a number of settings (energy, lighting, audio, and many others.) on a per-game foundation; Graphics Fan Instrument and FROZR AI Cooling for guide and automated cooling management; and Sport Highlights (which requires downloading a separate plugin, which I didn’t set up). There’s additionally MSI Restoration for backups and Consumer Situation (excessive, balanced, silent, customized).
Once more, there’s an entire lot occurring with MSI heart, and the settings and options we tried principally labored. However the Options tab is simply overloaded with stuff, the software program feels unnecessarily clunky and the graphics and normal design appears bland. I most well-liked the previous Dragon Heart, which at the very least regarded prefer it belonged on a high-end gaming PC.
That mentioned, all of those do-it-all PC {hardware} apps are likely to really feel bloated. And having one app with an excessive amount of occurring might be nonetheless higher normally than having a dozen completely different packages all doing their very own factor.
MSI Infinite RS thirteenth Configurations
MSI presently affords the Infinite RS thirteenth in 5 configurations at varied retailers as of this writing, though most sport an RTX 4090 and a Core i9-13900K. And as such, there isn’t a significant swing in costs. Our 13NUI-431US evaluation configuration with a liquid-cooled GPU sells for $4,599 at B&H (opens in new tab) and Adorama (opens in new tab), however $4,799 at Newegg (opens in new tab). If you’re keen to step all the way down to a Core i7-13700KF CPU (which our CPU testing exhibits will supply successfully the identical gaming efficiency) and an air-cooled RTX 4090 Gaming Trio GPU, the 13NUI-419US mannequin sells for $4,199 at Newegg (opens in new tab). Different fashions enhance the RAM to 64GB and go for both the liquid-cooled Suprim card or the air-cooled Trio and promote for between $4,699 and $4,899. Like our evaluation unit, all configurations that have been obtainable after we wrote this shipped with a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD.
Conclusion
Sure, all configurations of the MSI Infinite RS thirteenth are costly at over $4,000, however with most RTX 4090s nonetheless promoting for north of $2,000, and the Core i9 promoting for round $600, this pricing is the norm. A equally configured Alienware Aurora R15, with an air-cooled 4090 and different core specs similar to our MSI system, offered for $4,699 after we wrote this. So relying on the place you purchase, you can spend $100 much less for the MSI and get an ordinary motherboard, quieter operation underneath load, and a extra premium-feeling case.
However word that you simply really want the house for an enormous rig should you go for the MSI Infinite, and also you shouldn’t anticipate far superior efficiency for the higher cooling. In most of our gaming and productiveness assessments, the MSI and Alienware techniques carried out about the identical, regardless of the MSI having higher cooling general, and liquid cooling on each the CPU and GPU.
The primary advantages of choosing the MSI, all different issues being equal, are quieter operation, extra growth choices and higher efficiency for time-consuming CPU-intensive duties.
MORE: Greatest PC Builds
MORE: Greatest Gaming PCs